Don't believe the labor union -- and by the way, take $5 off your next purchase at Food City.

That's the message from the Bashas' grocery chain in its latest English-and-Spanish-languages mailer to Valley homes. "Who is trying to destroy Food City?" the flier asks, then answers its own question by bashing the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99 for its "lies."

The mailer notes that the union is engaged in a "smear campaign" against the chain and is paying big bucks to Hispanic activist Alfredo Gutierrez to "mislead" the public. Bashas' first learned the latter detail from our article last year about the union's dirty tactics.

The Food City mailer is a response to mailers sent out by the union in recent weeks that allege dirty and unsafe conditions in the chain.

Meanwhile, as the Mailer Wars go on: a defamation lawsuit by Bashas' against the union floats in the court system, and the chain is pondering closing stores to help it deal with the recession.